Is anyone here old enough to have seen the original West End production with Vanessa in the lead role? I know the film was offered to her first and it was a famous production. Nonetheless Maggie Smith did a fantastic job. Just curious to know what Vanessa did with the role.
shareOld enough to have seen it, but unfortunately never did. Movie is playing now on TCM, and I was thinking about Vanessa in the original. I love Maggie Smith, generally, but really don't like this movie, or her performance (the voice she uses for Brodie, for one thing, grates on me.)
Redgrave has been my favorite actress since "Morgan!", so would love to have seen what she did with the character. Was fortunate to have seen her on Broadway, though, in 1988/1989 in Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending". Second-rate Williams, but first-rate Redgrave.
Maggie Smith's voice, which you state, "grated" on you, was a very authentic Edinburgh accent of the middle classes.
Don't plan on a long visit in that area of eastern Scotland as you will be "grated" to screaming point! In fact, don't go, please.
Btw, although not resident in Scotland now, I hail from that cultured city.
How i envy you! I know people who say that is the best performance they have ever seen in their lives!
shareWhy thank you. (Very proud to be an Edinburgh "lad").
Yes, for me, that was Dame Maggie's best performance, one of many of course.
Edinburgh, being a very shall we say, leafy and open city, ("city of spires and aquatints")had a high percentage of private schools, with more pupils attending that sector than any other city in the UK outside London. This film very much resonates with me, as also familiar with, not only the parts of the city where filming took place, but the middle class attitudes of the times, and beyond.
Dame Muriel Spark once said, accurately, in a radio interview that "Edinburgh is a state of mind"! She did have a point.